Immortal Memory

Tonight is Burn's night.

All over the land people will be donning items of tartan and munching down haggis and whisky. Usually a series of toasts will follow, the first being the toast to the immortal memory of Robert Burns.
Usually this toast is essentially a biography. Frankly, a decent one can be found on wikipedia. Instead indulge me, let me examine why, even now, we celebrate tonight. By doing so I will look at who Burns was before asking why we celebrate him.

So who was Burns? He was a husband, a father, a freemason (no conspiracy theories... only that he joined in my home town), an excise man (although he can be forgiven that sin) and a poet. The latter is what he is remembered for. His works include observations on things around him and stories. What Burns was most certainly not was a member of the then literary elite; a self-selected few who regarded themselves as superior. Essentially, Burns was a normal man who achieved something exceptional.

We celebrate today, his birthday, by indulging in an orgy of Scottishness. Without doubt Burns is a Scottish icon. The dialect in which he writes is an interesting hybrid of east coast and west coast. But I am going to a Burns night in England organised by an English person. Why is this? What does the appeal stretch south of the border. I believe it relates directly to my previous point; Burns was an ordinary man who achieved something exceptional.

This is a very British trait. The history of science is littered with examples of hobbyists making groundbreaking discoveries, often in the face of the professional elite. A good example of this are cells. These were first observed in a loft using a hand-ground lens in an optician's spare time. This one observation now underpins a substantial chunk of our understanding of modern biology.

On a different note; this year sees the release of Skyfall, the latest addition to the James Bond film franchise. Commander Ian Flemming started the Bond movement in the late 1950s by declaring he intended to write the best spy story ever written. At the time he faced derision in literary circles. Today, Bond remains hugely popular and almost universally acclaimed. I invite you to draw your own conclusions.

Finally, in the year that London hosts the Olympic games, it would be impossible not to mention one of history's greatest Olympians. Sir Steve Redgrave started rowing not with dreams of sporting success nor international fame but for the rather more noble reason of avoiding double maths on a Thursday afternoon.

These are a few isolated examples of ordinary Brits achieving extraordinary things. It is for this reason, I believe, that we celebrate Burn's night. To celebrate not only his achievements but those of others like him too.

If you are marking tonight in any way I urge you to raise your glass at this point. To Robert Burns and all the other Great Britons of history.

JR